Many Age 50+ Don’t Have a Plan for Retirement
A defined benefit plan, a gold watch at age 65 and being employed by one company your entire working life has gone away. For too many, Social Security is the only retirement plan they have and they’re not optimizing its benefits for maximum income. Social Security isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it auto-retirement plan, and retirement planning isn’t a do-it-yourself activity either. If you want your retirement years to be your golden years, you have to have a plan the money to fund it.
A financial advisor who has retirement expertise can help you design your retirement plan. But it’s all for naught if you don’t pay yourself first. Having a vision of your retirement is one thing, but it requires an economic epiphany to motivate you pay yourself first. Any vision of retirement is just a dream until you decide to that. Once you discipline yourself to set aside a portion of every paycheck, of your IRS refund, of your inheritance and any windfall, you’re ready to engage a financial advisor who is recognized as having expertise to help you develop your plan.
Can you imagine playing in the NFL without a game plan? Would you ever confront a military foe without strategic planning? Is it even conceivable to run a corporation without tactical planning? If you’re golden years are going to be memorable ones, you need a plan with goals, strategies and tactics. There are three fundamental goals in retirement. The first is to establish increasing income you can’t outlive to cover your increasing cost of living in retirement. The second is to ensure an inheritance for your progeny and your favorite non-profit organizations. The third is to grow your estate and expand your influence.
To establish increasing income you can’t outlive to cover your increasing cost of living in retirement, you’ll want to consider guaranteed lifetime income annuities as your supporting strategies. To ensure an inheritance for your progeny and your favorite non-profit organizations, you’ll need to investigate the purchase of life insurance that can leverage your money to your kids and charities. To grow your estate and expand your influence, you’ll need to take a risk-tolerance test to determine your suitability for equities and bond holdings that have potential of increasing your net worth.
Syndicated financial columnist and talk show host Steve Savant interviews Stephen Stricklin, certified financial planner and registered investment advisor. Stephen is one of the top five advisors in the nation according Retirement Advisor magazine, a leading industry publication.
